Farmers bailout package politically motivated, says Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday rejected the so-called bailout package for farmers announced by the prime minister on Tuesday as a “political gimmick,
devoid of substance and sincerity and aimed only at hoodwinking the farmers and the people on the eve of local bodies’ polls in the province”. In a PPP official reaction on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s announcement of Package of Rs341 billion for the farmers, the former president expressed grave disappointment that the so-called relief package was not only too little, too late but it did not specify the source of financing. Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the former president deplored that an issue of food security and farmers’ survival was being dealt with in a manner that
was no more than a political gimmick. Asif Ali Zardari said when the opposition parties, the farmers and the people were agitating for rescuing farmers from ruination the government turned a deaf ear but as soon as the LB polls were announced it has announced a so-called relief package but without specifying the source of funding. “The government of the big business houses has deliberately targeted the farmers hoping to weaken the political power base of democratic opposition parties but not realising
the enormous damage done to the country in the process,” he said. The former president said
farmers have been rightly demanding adequate support price for their produce that the government has stubbornly refused.